Half a coffee cup for the icon today to indicate my "half-hinney" job doing the new thread this am!!!
WEDNESDAY, August 2: Texas "Coffee" and Gardening in the AM
I've got to take my new cat, Brutus, to the vet this am at 9:30; I signed something "in blood" saying I'd take him within 36 hours of adoption! ...so I better go put on some makeup and ...oh yeah...street clothes! :)
See everyone here later...
Soon as school starts I'll probably be here more regularly...hope so!!
I'm enjoying reading at night what y'all have to say each morning!
Good morning! I'm drinking my first cup of tea and trying to focus -- the dogs are all strewn around me, ready to jump for joy at the slightest movement suggesting they're about to get breakfast.
Quiet morning this morning, I hope -- then off to a meeting at 2:45 and a banquet at 6:30. It's an hour's drive away, and in this heat I'd prefer to be completely off the roads. DFW-area drivers have gotten increasingly mean as the temperature has increased. Not fun at all.
Doing a little rain shimmy, so far in vain --
Good morning! Your grandson is very cute, Sheila. :-) We have absolutely no plans for today, which is very nice! I need to get outside and weed.
Tomorrow we have a "family dental date.." Charles, Joy, and I all have appointments. Whoever isn't in the examination room will play with Katie in the waiting room. This will be Joy's first dentist's appointment... Hopefully she will be cooperative and not totally freak out.
I've got a late start this morning, still recovering from yesterday evening. I worked late in the garden yesterday and with this heat it really zaps me. Dumped the first batch of compost from the plastic garbage can compost trial onto where hubby dug out the diseased Althea this weekend. I'm glad I didn't go to the expense of buying one of those rotating drum compost bins. My garbage can trial effort has worked great! Hubby forked it in well and we planted a new Hummingbird bush and an Indigo Spires sage. Still have to get the Porterweed in. Maybe this evening. Hope y'all have a good day and Marylyn, good luck on that 1st trip to the dentist for Joy.
I'm heading down to Georgetown, TX early in the morning to assist the family in the last days of my grandmother (see: In Love and Honor thread). I'll be there a few days. I think I'll try to find a Georgetown-area nursery who may have some of the plants recommended in that thread that I can plant in honor of my grandmother -- a strong and feisty woman who, I have learned, willed her body to science, so there won't be an immediate funeral -- rather, a memorial service next month, when her family from all over the country (and from Scotland) can come. I need to do something to celebrate her life, and I'd like to bring it back from Georgetown, where she lived from 1947 on.
Does anyone know of any great nurseries in that area? I'm looking to plant something perennial and beautiful -- that other thread has the details.
Thanks in advance!
Marylyn...I know this is "trickery" but it worked for my daughter and the "dentist" thing. I found some pictures from my school nurse of totally rotted out BLACK teeth. I showed them to her (she would kick and scream on the floor when I tried to brush her teeth) and from then on, she would say "Me no want black teeth," as I explained how important the dentist was! :)
Susannah...how noble of your grandmother to will her body to science! My brother (who is 53) has already made that decision. I didn't understand about the "memorial service" and then a final burial later until about a week ago when a friend said she and her family were going to Houston/Galveston for a final memorial and to bury her aunt.
Crow...tell me about the "garbage can" composting...or it is on a thread somewhere? I would like to try that. But it seems it would be hard to turn with a pitchfork. Could one not just roll it around? ha (See, I know nothing!!)
Joy doesn't mind having her teeth brushed at all, but she is afraid of/hyper-sensitive to many loud noises/power tools/hair dryers, etc.. so I don't know how she is going to react to the power toothbrush and other instruments of tort-.. I mean cleaning. (grin) Hopefully she won't need to find out about the drill for a LONG time!!
I hope you find the perfect plant to honor your grandmother, Susannah.
Connie, on the garbage can composting I tried several things before finding one that worked. I didn't want an open conpost pile because of the ants, rats and roaches and I thought the compost drums were just too expensive. We bought 4 large (I think 55 gallon) heavy plastic garbage bins. We keep one empty, one nearly finished, one working and one adding new material. Once a week we take the nearly finished one and dump it into the empty, forking it to mix as we go. We then take the working one and put it in the newly emptied and so on. Once we have one almost full, we add a couple shovel fulls of soil, a handful of fertilizer and a beer to help speed up decomp. We don't usually have to add water becasue we add green grass clippings from the lawn weekly and all the kitchen waste including any water that vegetables were cooked in.We keep the lids on most of the time to help build up heat. If it gets too smelly, it's usually because it's too wet and we'll leave the lids off for a few days. You can add a spigot to the bottom to drain off the "tea" or just punch a hole and plug it with a wine cork. We did try just rolling them to mix it, but it just slid around the sides and didn't really mix, but I've heard that same complaint from the purchased drums. This is working really well for us and only cost about $40.00 which was a heck of a lot less than a premade rotating drum. The only problem at all is that you don't get the air movement through the pile that you would with a vented one, but I don't want to cut vent holes because I don't want to start a fireant condo.
Connie, you did fine with the link....I knew you could do it. I have been filling my days with more than they hold lately, and I am so looking forward to Friday pm. My office boss/co-office worker, is off as of tomorrow for a week and half. I relish the quite room, but I will have more work to pick up the slack.
What is going on with Brutus' eye? Hope it can be reversed.
Susannah,
Hope your trip to pay respects to your Grandmother is peaceful and you get the plant that you want for remembrance. Glad your eye is getting better too.
Crow, that sounds like a good option to expand my composting efforts, but the DH doesn't like me wasting my time, he would rather buy it bagged! So I wouldn't have the help to dump it one to another.
Marylyn,
Caden is my Great Nephew (my Sister's Grandson), but she said I could claim him as mine since his Dad's parents are deaceased. We do try to spoil him whenever we can.
Hi Marylyn_Tx (well hello everybody, actually) -- I realized I'd overlooked a question you had yesterday about Puzzle and what she searches for.
She's a search dog for missing persons -- lost children or Alzheimer's patients, crime, accident, and disaster victims, etc. Here she is in her working clothes. When she's not wielding a horseshoe (heh), she's a very hardworking girl.
Link shows the photo without the watermark: http://www.catoninetales.com/images/newvest.jpg
This message was edited Aug 2, 2006 9:18 PM
That is so cool Susannah! Puzzle is one dog earning her keep! I used to work for a vet in the past (mid-80s) and we cared for the drug search dogs for the Police in that town. They are such loved animals and do so much great work.
Oh...she's so cool! And I love her name!...love all unique ones...in humans too....this said by a teacher who taught 8 (yes....EIGHT!) Catherines (Kathrine, etc.) last year!!!
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/634964/
On to Thursday~~~!!!